LESLIE: Ron in Pennsylvania’s dealing with some roof moss. What can we do for you?
RON: Oh, how you doing, guys? Appreciate taking the call. I have a 10 year old home and we’re – the front of the home is a northern exposure and we have this strip of moss on the roof shingles and I’m trying to get, you know, some direction on how I can get that moss off.
TOM: Sure. Since it’s the north face it’s typically more shady. Do you have any trees that overhang the home there that are causing that shade?
RON: Well, no. In the back we have southern exposure but in the back is wetland area and a creek.
TOM: Right.
RON: So there tends to be a fair amount of moisture.
TOM: OK.
RON: So in the wintertime, because of the southern exposure, the front part of the house doesn’t get, you know, as much sun. So …
TOM: OK. There’s a couple of things that you can do. There are various products on the market that are designed to help wash away the moss. One of them is called Roof Reviver and I think their website is RoofReviver.com. Another one you can buy in home centers; it’s called Jomax. And essentially, you spray these products on; let them sit and then sort of scrub the moss away after it sits for a little while.
RON: OK.
TOM: A little trick of the trade to stop this from happening in the future is to go up to the ridge of this roof. Is it a ranch that you have or a two-story Colonial?
RON: No, it’s a two-story Colonial.
TOM: OK. Well, at the ridge that goes down the peak …
RON: OK.
TOM: … if you could take a piece of copper flashing or nickel flashing and lay it on top of the ridge, what’ll happen is at it rains some of that copper or nickel will release into the water as it runs down the roof and it’ll cleanse the roof because that’s a good mildicide. Copper or nickel are good –
RON: Copper.
TOM: Yeah, good mildicides and it’ll release the metal into the water. That tends to keep it clean. That’s why sometimes when you see chimneys that have sort of white streaks under them …
RON: Right, right.
TOM: … that’s because of the copper flashing that the water is releasing off of.
RON: OK. That sounds great.
TOM: Alright?
RON: I panicked because I thought I had to, you know, do a major roof repair but this sounds great.
TOM: No, you know the moss on the roof doesn’t really cause any damage. It’s really just a cosmetic issue.
RON: OK. Really appreciate.
TOM: You’re welcome, Ron. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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